It is well known that trash in fast-food restaurants is generally light in weight because it includes drinking cups, cardboard food containers, wrapping papers, and molded plastic food containers. When patrons of the restaurant eat within the restaurant, they normally deposit their trash into a trash receptacle which includes a housing within which a trash container is provided and a swinging door for access to the interior of the housing which allows the patrons to deposit trash through the swinging door into the trash container located within the housing. It is also known to provide plastic liners for the trash containers in the form of bags within which the trash is collected and thereafter removed from the trash containers when filled. Such trash handling units require the use of many plastic trash bags and labor intensive manpower to handle the bags and maintain the trash within the containers at a level that will allow them to receive further trash, so that the trash does not spill out onto the floor.
Considerable storage area is necessary in order to store filled trash bags accumulated during the servicing of a trash receptacle. A bag holding the trash in the container must be removed from the container, closed and tied off and replaced with another empty bag. Then the filled bag is removed to a disposal service area for storage until a garbage service removes the trash. Because of the rapid buildup of trash, manual handling of filled trash bags and a large storage area must be provided to accommodate the filled trash bags.
Heretofore, it has been well known to provide trash handling devices which include compactors for trash containers such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,358 to minimize the number of bags. However, the potential problems with this trash handling device is that the lever or handle for operating the compactor is on the exterior of the trash receptacle and is thereby operable by a patron of the restaurant, which is undesirable. Further, the compacting plate may not be sufficiently sized and shaped to completely compact the trash in the plastic bag to fully maximize the amount of trash in the bag.